The present invention relates to a data processing system in which setting information necessary for an operation of a data processing device such as a facsimile machine or a printer is stored in a storage device external to the data processing device, and also relates to the storage device and a computer program.
A data processing device, such as a facsimile machine or a printer, stores setting information necessary for processing data, such as information specifying the data processing device itself such as a telephone number or an IP address, identification information for identifying a user of the data processing device, and information showing a recipient of data, and processes data based on the contents of the setting information. In general, these pieces of setting information are manually inputted by the user into the data processing device, and stored, for example, in a memory mounted on a control substrate in the data processing device.
When the data processing device or the control substrate of the data processing device is replaced, or when the contents of the setting information were lost by an accident, it is necessary to input the setting information again into the data processing device, and thus there is the problem that a lot of time is required. Moreover, in general, since a plurality of data processing devices are used in an office or the like, there is the problem that it takes a lot of time to input the setting information into the respective data processing devices.
Therefore, a technique was developed. In this technique, a storage device for storing the setting information is provided separately from a data processing device, a backup copy of the setting information of the data processing device is stored in this storage device, and the setting information is returned to the data processing device when necessary. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-244317 (1996) discloses a technique in which a plurality of data processing devices are connected with network, and one data processing device which also functions as a storage device stores the setting information of other data processing devices and inputs the stored setting information into an arbitrary data processing device when necessary. With this technique, it is possible to easily input the setting information again into the data processing device, input the setting information into a new data processing device, and simultaneously input the setting information into a plurality of data processing devices.
The data to be processed by a data processing device may include confidential data such as text containing confidential information of a business, or transaction documents to customers. In order to protect such confidential data, data processing devices capable of processing data while encrypting the data or restricting users have been used. The setting information stored in such a data processing device includes various types of confidential information, such as information showing a recipient of data which is a customer, information showing the user, and the encryption key when the data is encrypted. However, with the use of a technique in which the setting information is stored in a storage device different from the data processing device like the technique disclosed in above-mentioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-244317 (1996), since the setting information containing confidential information can be inputted into another data processing device, there is the problem that it is impossible to manage the confidential information.